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MONTHLY UPDATE
News for C-FAR Members

Illinois Council on Food and Agricultural Research
September 2009

Early fall greetings from C-FAR.  Highlights of the past month include the following.

FY10 APPROPRIATION REINSTATEMENT: STATUS UPDATE
The C-FAR Board of Directors recently issued a special message regarding the status of the FY10 appropriation.  As the Board conveyed, their focus is on the Administration’s and Illinois General Assembly’s consideration of the reinstatement of funding for this appropriation during the fall veto session (October 14-16 and October 28-30).  A significant number of General Assembly members recently received a communication in this regard.

BOARD OF DIRECTORS MEETING
The C-FAR Board of Directors met during early September to address a number of substantive matters.  Highlights of their thoughtful deliberations included:

• FY10 appropriation reinstatement – Various legislative engagements and communications were considered, including a membership-wide communication (referenced above).
• C-FAR personnel and office – Directors concurred the College of ACES Dean, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, would be provided latitude to exercise due diligence in limiting financial exposure of C-FAR personnel and operation costs should an FY10 appropriation is not reinstated.  This is due to the C-FAR office being housed on UIUC’s campus and the College of ACES having institutional oversight of its personnel and office operations.
• Audit of C-FAR’s Legislative and Non-Legislative accounts – The audit report of the Illinois Agricultural Auditing Association (IAAA) for the fiscal year ending June 30, 2009 was accepted.  The IAAA’s audit letter stated that C-FAR’s statements “present fairly, in all material aspects, the financial position of the Council.”  A copy of the audit is available to C-FAR members upon request.
• FY10 Legislative and Non-Legislative account budgets – Directors were informed that budgets for these two accounts were recently approved by Organizational member voting delegates (these FY10 budgets are very similar to recent years).  These budgets are available upon request.
• Strategic Visioning Task Force – This task force (which was commissioned by the Board during July to study a variety of C-FAR programs and protocols) will not be called to action until there is greater clarity on C-FAR’s FY10 appropriation status.
• University C-FAR allocation review – Per the Department of Agriculture Director’s concurrence of the Board’s recommended process for conducting the review of university percentages for the period FY11-FY13, requests for budget-related information will be issued in mid-September to the four universities.  Note: C-FAR allocation percentages are reviewed every three years, per the Food and Agriculture Research Act (the enabling C-FAR appropriation legislation).  The Director of the Illinois Department of Agriculture determines if any percentage change is warranted and so reports to the General Assembly.
• Membership update – Directors reviewed current C-FAR membership rosters, which reflected memberships being very similar to 2008.  Specifically, membership numbers as of this time are: Organizational – 58; Affiliate – 33; Individual – 128.

C-FAR DAY
Also at the September Board meeting, consideration was given to this fall’s C-FAR Day.  With regret, it was decided this year’s C-FAR Day at UIUC will not be held (it was initially scheduled for November 11).  While recognizing the extraordinary opportunity this event affords researchers and industry leaders to engage, the Board felt it would be inappropriate to hold this event in light of C-FAR’s current funding uncertainty.

UNIVERSITY LEADERSHIP CHANGES
SIUC Interim Chair named – Dr. Jeff Beaulieu has been named Interim Chair of SIUC’s Department of Agribusiness Economics.  He succeeds Dr. Steven Kraft who retired this summer.  Dr. Beaulieu brings considerable teaching and research experience to his new post.  We look forward to our new partnership with him.

UIUC ACES Development & Extension – Dr. Dennis Campion, who has served as Associate Dean for Extension and Outreach, has been named to a new post – Interim Associate Dean for Public and Corporate Relations in the College of ACES.  Interim leadership for University of Illinois Extension and Outreach will be provided by Dr. Robert Hoeft, who comes to this leadership service from being Head of the Crop Sciences Department at UIUC.  Both of these appointments were effective September 16.  A successor for Dr. Hoeft is currently being considered, and ACES’s goal is to have the new Crop Sciences Head in place by mid-November.  We extend our best to Drs. Campion and Hoeft on their new opportunities and responsibilities.

As we look ahead to October, we find...
As is typical for October, due to our producer colleagues being in the field for harvest, our meeting schedule will be held to an as-needed basis.

C-FAR BROCHURE AVAILABLE
A new C-FAR brochure is now available.  It is a brief yet comprehensive overview of C-FAR and the importance of food and agricultural research for Illinois.  Requests for copies are most welcomed, be it for individual interests or desiring several copies for organization’s boards, etc.  Just let us know if you would like copies sent to you.

FY09 EXPENDITURE REPORTS
As I referenced last month, FY09 expenditure reports from C-FAR appropriated funds are now compiled and are being shared with State of Illinois officials (this is an annual reporting process).  While the reports being conveyed include considerable detail, it may be of interest to note
C-FAR’s research and supporting programs expenditures were $3.99 million in FY08 and $3.48 million in FY09.  These expenditure levels are higher than the respective year’s appropriation as funds from previous fiscal year(s) were scheduled for multi-year research initiatives.

ILLINOIS’ NATIONAL RANK
New rankings (for 2008) of state expenditures in food and agricultural research are expected from the U.S. Department of Agriculture at any time.  The above section on C-FAR appropriation expenditures is highly relevant in this regard, as the C-FAR appropriation is the key factor in Illinois’ ranking (other state-appropriated funds have, in constant dollars, increased modestly during the past two decades). 

Case-in-point is the following C-FAR appropriation levels and Illinois’ rank:

• 1995 (year prior to first C-FAR appropriation): Illinois ranked 26th nationally and 9th among the ten Midwestern states
• 2000 (year C-FAR appropriation was at its high of $15 million): Illinois ranked 15th nationally and 9th among the ten Midwestern states
• 2007 – (most recent fiscal year data available when C-FAR appropriation was $4.5 million): Illinois ranked 24th nationally and last among the 10 Midwestern states

From this analysis, other Midwestern states have not realized any significant reduction to their funding for food and agricultural research and some have made rather substantive increases.

As has been shared many times before, Illinois’ rank may not necessarily be of the greatest importance.  But, the research capacity this rank reflects is deeply meaningful.  We anticipate new data being available this coming month and I will convey new rankings in the next update.

All our best to you and yours.

Kraig

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Kraig A. Wagenecht, Executive Administrator
Illinois Council on Food & Agricultural Research (C-FAR)
1101 W. Peabody Drive · Urbana, IL 61801
Tel: 217.244.4232 · Fax: 217.244.8594
email: wagenech@illinois.edu